Monthly Archives: August 2014

Bret Stephens writes The Meltdown in the September Commentary. Excerpts: Then again, every president confronts his share of apparently intractable dilemmas. The test of a successful presidency is whether it can avoid being trapped and defined by them. Did Obama…

Hillary’s Foreign Policy Failures a comprehensive look, also scan the 80+ commments at AT. A similar look, though more focused on Obama, from Bret Stephens in Commentary: The Meltdown excerpts: Even the ordinarily sympathetic Washington press corps has cottoned to…

from Iraq War Regrets in The National Review, a compendium of analysis. Michael Pakaluk The term for the main virtue of practical intelligence, prudence, comes from a contraction of the word for foresight, “providentia.” So it should cause no surprise that in…

From Erick Erickson in Townhall, The Continued Farce: excerpt: In the United States today, more and more publications refuse letters to the editor from skeptics of global warming. As the world stays in this plateau of no warming, which we…

Kevin Williamson writes Blue Voodoo in National Review. Excerpts: The point of rehearsing this history is not to determine whether traditional supply-side thinking on economic policy is true or false, but rather to show that it is something fundamentally different from the trickle-down caricature…

From The Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens writes The Neo-Neocons: So now liberals want the U.S. to bomb Iraq, and maybe Syria as well, to stop and defeat ISIS, the vilest terror group of all time. Where, one might ask,…

from Iraq War Regrets in The National Review, a compendium of analysis. PETE HEGSETH Those who made the case for war in Iraq — and defended the war throughout — should not feel the remorse of responsibility about recent developments. The Islamic…

“Instead, then, of trying to distance himself from the anti-Semitic associations of the old America First movement, Buchanan moved with all due deliberation in the opposite direction, and kept right on moving for the next ten years. By the time…

Jonah Goldberg writes Mr. Piketty’s Big Book of Marxiness in the July issue of Commentary. Excerpt: Well, no. In fact, the Billy Zane character was an entirely fictional creation of James Cameron’s imagination (and the proper spelling of his name is Hockley;…

from Carpe Diem …. are from Ludwig von Mises, writing in Human Action. 1. A man who chooses between drinking a glass of milk and a glass of a solution of potassium cyanide does not choose between two beverages; he chooses…

From The New Republic, Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League by William Deresiewicz The sign of the system’s alleged fairness is the set of policies that travel under the banner of “diversity.” And that diversity does indeed represent nothing less…

by Henry Oliner I have often heard the voters’ frustration with politics voiced as a call for statesmanship, but what do we expect from a statesman? Perhaps we can clarify by examining its opposite. The opposite of the Statesman…

From American Thinker, Ten Reasons Why I Am No Longer a Leftist by Danusha V. Goska: Excerpt: It astounds me now to reflect on it, but never, in all my years of leftist activism, did I ever hear anyone articulate accurately the…

Excerpts from Destabilizer-in-Chief by Mario Loyola in National Review: The Arab Spring began with great hope around the world. But the Arab Spring was no mere rebellion against authoritarian regimes. It was the crisis of legitimacy of the brittle Arab states that arose…

From Sultan Knish Daniel Greenfield, How To Write About Israel: Avoid mentioning all the mansions that you pass on the way to interviewing some Palestinian Authority or Hamas bigwig. When visiting a terrorist prisoner in an Israeli jail, be sure…

from Iraq War Regrets in The National Review, a compendium of analysis. DAVID FRENCH I don’t feel remorse for advocating that America topple Saddam Hussein. I don’t feel remorse that Americans also fought long and hard to defeat the subsequent…

From National Review Online Secular Stagnation Is a Cover-Up Failed Keynesian policies have blocked growth. By Larry Kudlow & Stephen Moore Excerpts: The blame falls on the White House and the Fed, and the discredited Keynesian model that government spending,…

“In any event, Richard Nixon was gone, and the doctrine bearing his name was not about to be disinterred by a president who saw no need for it and even thought that the United States would be better off without…

Kevin Williamson in National Review writes Economics Lessons Unlearnt Excerpts: More likely, the science writer David H. Freedman is correct when he argues that “economic models are always wrong,” that the process of calibrating models to account for historical and…

from Scott Grannis at Calafia Beach Pundit, Taxes Don’t Lie excerpt: As a supply sider, I don’t see the logic behind the theory that more government spending is stimulative and less is restrictive. How can taking money from those who…